Experimental verification of the interface wave method to detect interlaminar damage of a metal multilayer structure

The interface wave traveling along the boundary of two materials has been studied for nearly a century. However, experiments, engineering applications, and interface wave applications to the non-destructive inspection of interlaminar composite have developed slowly. In this research, an experiment that applies Stoneley waves (a type of interfacial wave between two solid half-spaces) is implemented to detect the damage in a multilayer structure. The feasibility of this method is also verified. First, the wave velocity and wave structure of Stoneley waves at a perfectly bonded aluminum-steel interface are obtained by solving the Stoneley wave dispersion equation of two elastic half-spaces. Thereafter, an experiment is conducted to measure the Stoneley wave velocity of an aluminumsteel laminated beam and to locate interlaminar cracks by referring to the Stoneley wave velocity and echo wave time. Results indicate that the location error is less than 2%. Therefore, Stoneley waves show great potential as a non-destructive inspection method of a multilayer structure. © 2015, Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.